Features
Temptations of the flesh
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
Photography: Charlie McKay. Styling: Jess Murphy. Models: Ophelia King & Nina Lloyd.
Recipes
Batter up – Fiona Smith shares her love for okonomiyaki, the Japanese pancake
Author. Fiona Smith — 02/ 03/ 2018
For my money, the street and casual food of Japan is where you find some of the best flavours. Takoyaki, octopus dumplings, are everywhere – too tempting when I’m trying not to eat octopus – as are yakimochi (grilled rice paste cakes) being grilled over charcoal.
Travel
Kumamoto
Author. Mika Reilly — 02/ 03/ 2018
Saturday
7:10am, Haneda Airport. Outside is a thick vichyssoise grey fog that bleeds seamlessly into the sea.
We take off into the soupy air, shadows of freighters and fishing boats hanging in the murk below. The plane banks sharp to the left and we pass over the square edges of the Boso Peninsula, an industrial mirage of smokestacks fading in and out of cloud. We’re climbing fast: already a plane coming into land is tiny and swift beneath us.
We’re going to Kumamoto.
Travel
Revisiting first loves. A Los Angeles food story
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
I was born and raised in Los Angeles as a first generation Mexican-American, which meant that tortillas came with nearly every meal, beans (the perfect food according to my dad) were a staple and tamales were inevitable at every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Features
Common Ground
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
Over the simple act of growing and preparing food, a Lebanese social entrepreneur is bringing peace and prosperity to people whose lives have been impacted by war. In Beirut, Jo Bates meets with Kamal Mouazawak, a man whose pared-back philosophy commits to profound change.
Features
Natts Amore
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
Brendan Manning channelled his inner-Julia Roberts in June to realise a long-held goal of seeing what all the bloody fuss was about with Italy.
Daniela met us underneath a shaded tree surrounded by Fiano vines on one of their plots in Irpinia, Campania. It was a hot June day at the onset of what would be a particularly brutal Italian summer. We were jaded from the drive from Naples and navigating the back country roads that Google Maps has yet to conquer; and Daniela’s offer of a glass of wine on arrival – produced from the same grapes that surrounded us – was understandably welcome.
DIY
Tomato & Chilli Ferment
Author. The Next Meal — 02/ 03/ 2018
This fermented tomato and chilli recipe was inspired by tomatoes going bad at home as well as already-gone-bad tomatoes at markets – you can pick up kilograms of them from markets like Avondale or Otara in Auckland for pocket change.
Features
Samoa’s finest
Author. Here's Barney — 02/ 03/ 2018
I stumbled across Samoa’s Finest because I was always op-shopping at the massive Savemart that sits just behind it in Waitangirua, Porirua. It was fate; I spotted their huge Samoan flag, pulled in, and introduced myself. Now I hit Waitangirua for the op-shop AND the food.
Features
Flat whites and white flats
Author. Aaron McLean — 02/ 03/ 2018
Avondale, originally called Te Whau, is famous among food lovers for its Sunday market, and in fact was the site of early Auckland’s market gardens. I recently visited Avondale old boy Tom Scott of Homebrew, @Peace and Average Rap Band fame.
Features
Kaitiakitanga
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
“Providing for today as well as tomorrow”
By Rōpata Taylor
(Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Koata)
Recipes
Milk and Meat – a love letter
Author. Stone Soup — 02/ 03/ 2018
Religion, it’s a funny thing. I grew up in a family that didn’t give two hoots about God, or maybe we just didn’t know two hoots about him…or her. Look at that, already stirring the religious pot.
Features
Feeding bellies, not bins
Author. Leisha Jones — 01/ 03/ 2018
Every Monday night in Auckland’s St. Kevins Arcade a small crowd gathers at the top of the stairs as the clock inches closer to 6pm. Most people seem to know each other one way or another – from the government housing on Grey’s Ave, from sleeping on the streets, or from the surrounding offices, restaurants and shops – but they are all here for the same reason, to have some dinner.
Features
Stone Soup Volume 5
Author. Stone Soup — 28/ 02/ 2018
All you need is Love
Hospitality/Dining
Nanam
Author. Charles Buenconsejo — 25/ 11/ 2017
Charles Buenconsejo liked interviewing, writing about and photographing the crew at Nanam so much for Stone Soup Volume 4 so much, he decided to turn his interview into a video as a gift to celebrate their new abode.
Features
Wake & bake
Author. Aaron McLean — 04/ 11/ 2017
When we first caught up with baker Jerome Ozich a year ago he had a seriously DIY enterprise, baking eight loaves of slow fermented sourdough a day in his home oven which he personally delivered to those who bought it from him via Instagram.
Hospitality/Dining
If it’s not broken we don’t change it
Author. Lynn Jenner — 04/ 11/ 2017
They say if you can remember the 70’s you weren’t there, but that isn’t entirely true. I have proof. Ever since I left Dunedin in 1983 I’ve kept great taste and texture memories of the whole-wheat salad, coleslaw and cottage cheese at Pot Pourri Vegetarian Café in lower Stewart Street.
Video
Eat New Zealand, Now we’re talking!
Author. Stone Soup — 14/ 10/ 2017
New Zealand food movement Eat New Zealand held their annual symposium in Wellington on 27th August 2017 in conjunction with Wellington On A Plate. Stone Soup Films set up a video booth to capture the thoughts of those in the audience and on the podium. The conversation continues….
Travel
Samoa Umu
Author. Aaron McLean — 06/ 10/ 2017
I love visiting the islands and I especially love visiting Samoa – beaming smiles, ‘island time’, beautiful palm-fringed tropical beaches, impromptu laughter-filled rugby games to watch from a sandy perch, rum in hand, book cast aside. Being skinny(ish) and white, I’ve never been game to pretend to be capable of joining in.
Features
Make every bite count
Author. Stone Soup — 06/ 10/ 2017
The connection between bees and food. Every piece of food we eat can either embody gratitude towards bees for their efforts, or it can add another metaphorical weight to their backs, according to how it was produced. Decidedly the best way to give thanks to bees is by sourcing or growing food that uses a biological method.
This sums up the life-changing understanding I have gained in learning about the connections between bees, plants and soil with For The Love of Bees – a city bee collaboration.
Travel
Soju Seoul
Author. Kate Richards — 06/ 10/ 2017
It’s hot. I sweat weaving in and out of Myeong-dong’s ubiquitous street food vendors, searching for anything ‘authentic’ amidst curly deep-fried potatoes on sticks, scallops with cheese, hotdogs, and lukewarm pomegranate juice. I don’t know what authentic really means in this context, but do know that – for me at least – Nirvana lies in a sweet spot somewhere between fermenty and spicy.
Features
A story about doing the best with what you’ve got
Author. Stone Soup — 06/ 10/ 2017
One of my favourite quotes is from the mouth of the assiduous and generally awe-inspiring Dr Jane Goodall, “The greatest danger to our future is apathy”. My family have been farming on the foothills of a mountain called Maungatautari, in the Waikato for over a century. Today, the land is a medium-sized organic dairy farm and apiary. And, if you count the 15 metres of garlic we planted at the weekend, we’re in the beginning stages of having a modest market garden in a year or so.
Features
The Food Farm
Author. Stone Soup — 06/ 10/ 2017
When I first stepped foot in Nick and Angela’s kitchen, I felt as though I had stepped into a still life Cézanne painting, only there was nothing contrived about the scene. Everything atop the counter – from the empty jars and the elegant wine bottles, to the food scattered on the cutting board and the lone baguette – told a story of a creation in the making. There is nothing still about their life, either: the Gill-Clifford household buzzes with activity from dawn until well past dusk.
Features
Cultivate Christchurch
Author. Stone Soup — 06/ 10/ 2017
I first met Fiona Stewart when she and her business partner Bailey Perryman approached me with their idea for an inner-city farm situated on a lot left vacant by earthquake demolition. The organisation that I was working for at the time, Life in Vacant Spaces (LIVS), manages private property on a rolling monthly basis while the landowners work through their future plans.
Features
The Gateway Beer
Author. Stone Soup — 05/ 10/ 2017
There are two types of people – those who love beer and those who couldn’t care less. In my line of business I am fortunate to know a lot of people who are extremely passionate about beer. They (who am I kidding, obviously I mean ‘we’) often look to that second group and feel a little sorry for them. “They are missing out on SO MUCH” is generally the vibe from us evangelists. It’s not that we want to force beer down people’s throats, we just love our friends and we love beer and we want to see them happy together.
Features
Tokyo – Train Station Food
Author. Mika Reilly — 05/ 10/ 2017
Tokyo is a superlative city by many measures – most populous urban area in the world, biggest metropolitan economy of all the world’s cities, home to the world’s busiest train station – but anyone who’s been to Tokyo knows there are two things the city does particularly well: food, and public transportation, and food in public transportation.
Features
Searching for soul
Author. Leisha Jones — 04/ 10/ 2017
Bourbon Street in New Orleans is the kind of place you have to see at least once in your life, but once is probably enough. The long, wide street is lined with bars all trying to out-sell each other with offers of huge beers, free refill drinks, and three-for-one shots. The loose liquor laws in the city mean you can buy a drink at any time of the day, some bars stay open all night, and everywhere you go you’ll be offered a to-go cup so you can cruise the streets with your cocktail.
Features
Raj Patel – Letter to a Young Farmer
Author. Stone Soup — 04/ 10/ 2017
So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
DIY
Clay seed balls – à la seed truffles
Author. Stone Soup — 04/ 10/ 2017
Food for Soil, Bugs, Plants, Humans.
The clay seed ball has been used for thousands of years as an effective tool and technique for the growing of agricultural crops and re-greening large areas of land. In recent times, they have been popularised through the Guerrilla Gardening movement. Seed balls are especially well known through Masanobu Fukuoka, a permaculture father figure who used them to naturally farm record breaking yields of rice on his organic farm.
Features
Defamiliarising the Familiar
Author. Charles Buenconsejo — 04/ 10/ 2017
For an immigrant, settling down in unfamiliar territory has never been easy, you have to deal with discomfort to become comfortable. As the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously said, “one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star”.
Features
Baja Mexico
Author. Stone Soup — 04/ 10/ 2017
Hurtling through dark streets surrounding seemingly empty neighbourhoods in Tijuana, bursts of bright light revealed bustling taco stands. Like a fever dream, so vivid and unexpected. It was nearing midnight and we wandered to find a late-night snack. The taco stands were sometimes the only lights on the street where the neighbourhood gathered. Despite the hour kids were out in pyjamas dancing under the pool of light, slipping in and out of darkness.
Recipes
Mole De Olla
Author. Mark McAllister — 03/ 10/ 2017
Mole de olla translates to pot of mole. It is eaten all over Mexico, the recipe and style varying from region to region and from cook to cook. Like all the best classic dishes, I reckon it was born out of necessity and whatever ingredients were to hand back in the day. It is a thin mole and is easy to make compared with a thick mole poblano, with its chocolate and long list of ingredients. I thought it qualified as a mole because of the addition of chilies but a bit of research tells me that the word “mole” comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec language) word “molli” meaning sauce, stew or concoction.
Features
The Next Meal – ricotta gnocchi with cured egg yolks
Author. Stone Soup — 16/ 09/ 2017
Gnocchi is a blank, cushiony canvas for you to paint with whatever flavours and textures your palate pleases. Although in fairness, this gnocchi here isn’t entirely blank.
